Snowden: NSA lies about me not trying to spur internal investigation

American National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks to European officials via videoconference during a parliamentary hearing on mass surveillance at the European Council in Strasbourg, eastern France, on April 8, 2014. (AFP Photo / Frderick Florin) / AFP

The United States National Security Agency was well aware that Edward Snowden was troubled by the spy office’s activities, the intelligence contractor-turned-leaker tells Vanity Fair, and that evidence exists to confirm that claim.

Ahead of a 20,000-word article on the former NSA analyst expected
to be published later this week, the US-based magazine has
released excerpts from an interview with Snowden in
which he specifically calls for the intelligence agency to come
clean about allegations concerning any complaints he may have
made before he began to leak classified documents to the press.

Snowden, 30, said last month in testimony delivered to the European
Parliament that he spoke up to "more than 10 distinct
officials” about his concerns regarding the NSA’s
activities, but was eventually driven to leak documents about
those programs due to the lack of response he received. He is
currently in Russia after being granted asylum there, and is
wanted in the US for disclosing classified documents.

Top-brass at the NSA responded by disputing Snowden’s
accusations, but to Vanity Fair he now says that he could verify
his claims with the help of archived emails.

“The NSA at this point not only knows I raised complaints,
but that there is evidence that I made my concerns known to the
NSA’s lawyers, because I did some of it through email,”
Snowden told the magazine.

“I directly challenge the NSA to deny that I contacted NSA
oversight and compliance bodies directly via email and that I
specifically expressed concerns about their suspect
interpretation of the law, and I welcome members of Congress to
request a written answer to this question [from the NSA],”
Snowden added.

Since he revealed himself to be the source behind a security
breach at the NSA that has led to the leaking of previously-secret documents starting last
June, Snowden has insisted that his attempts to raise
concerns internally, even while still contracting for the agency,
were ignored.

“Even among the most senior individuals to whom I reported my
concerns,” he said in a statement to the EU last month,
“no one at NSA could ever recall an instance where an
official complaint had resulted in an unlawful program being
ended, but there was a unanimous desire to avoid being associated
with such a complaint in any form.”

“I asked these people, ‘'What do you think the public would
do if this was on the front page?'" he told Washington
Post’s Barton Gellman late last year. "How is that not
reporting it? How is that not raising it?"

But when the NSA responded to Snowden’s remarks for Gellman’s
Dec. 23, 2013 article, the agency said "we have not
found any evidence to support Mr. Snowden's contention that he
brought these matters to anyone's attention."

Previously, Snowden has also claimed that US whistleblower
protection laws would not have applied to him had he stayed in
the US ahead of the first NSA leaks last June because, as he
explained to the EU, “As an employee of a private company
rather than a direct employee of the U.S. . . . I would not have
been protected from retaliation and legal sanction for revealing
classified information about lawbreaking in accordance with the
recommended process."

Richard Ledgett, the NSA deputy director who has been tasked with
leading an internal investigation into Snowden’s actions, told
Vanity Fair for this week’s article that none of the former
contractor’s ex-colleagues have yet to acknowledge ever having
any interaction with Snowden in which he voiced concerns,
contrary to the leaker’s claims.

Earlier this year, however, the NSA did take disciplinary action against several employees who
reportedly aided Snowden in his scouring of internal computer
systems, albeit unknowingly, including one active duty member of
the US military and at least two other contractors.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Snowden suggested that he doesn’t find
everyone at the US spy firm at fault for the intelligence
community’s actions.

“I’ve made many statements indicating both the importance of
secrecy and spying, and my support for the working-level people
at the NSA and other agencies. It’s the senior officials you have
to watch out for,” he said.

The full article on Snowden by Vanity Fair special correspondent
Bryan Burrough and contributing editors Suzanna Andrews and Sarah
Ellison will be available later this week.